Mixing Mindset

[Geneva Andreotti]

Manyyears ago, a very talented drummer hired my studio for several back-to-back studio sessions to record his drums. On day one we spent at least four hours setting up the kit, this process included tuning the shells and placing the microphones around the kit. In the setup, we wanted to achieve one solid drum sound that we could apply to all the songs we had planned to record over the week.

While we were tuning and damping the shells he said something to me, in an almost throwaway fashion, about drums that blew my mind wide open. It was a drumming mindset... that I thought was very clever:

This simple mindset really got me thinking about drums. Not long after, applying this mindset to my musical intuition I discovered I was able to improve my drum mixes and listening skills when working with drums in music production.

Replacing the term drum hits with drum notes helped me to consider the bigger picture of drums when I'm recording and mixing. When I used to think of drums hits as hits I only listened to the dynamics of the hits and the crack of the attack, this short-sighted interpretation of the drum had a negative impact on my productions as my ears only wanted to focus on those two elements - attack and dynamic. Applying the drum notes mindset helped me to work with drums in a much more musical way which led me to make better production choices in regards to drum shell tone within the note duration, how the drum shells decay and pitch.

I'm not saying for one minute that we should all stop using the term "drum hit" as it describes drum notes in a basic way. "Hit" is another way of saying "impact" but don't forget impact is only one aspect of a drum sound. Impact isn't enough in drum production. Thinking of drums hits as drum notes helped me to work smarter with drums and more creatively. if you struggle to produce great sounding drums in tracking and/or mixing workflows then change the way you think about drums - it might just change the way you work with them as well.

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There are endless videos online that give you the "how to" approach but few go into the reasons why in such an in-depth way, especially when mixing a song from start to finish. My coaching students tell me regularly that they want to get into my head to understand the thought processes that go into the decisions made behind every mix move, and that's what I've captured here for you to experience.

This is like the internship you never had. Each process is explained as if you are in the studio with Sara. Get the "warts and all" insight into a mixing session, so that you can see that even the pro's don't get it right the first time.

Discovering the "why's" will fill you with the a-ha moments that you've been missing so far on your journey as a mixing engineer or music producer.

In tracking or mixing, one can go crazy with the unlimited number of outboard EQs and compressors to choose from. Want a certain flavor on your drums? Grab an 1176. Want a softer compression on your vocals? Go with an LA-2A. You can even get different sounds with certain EQ circuits. But not with a console.

How does this relate to you or me? Think about it. Your audio interface generally has all the same kind of microphone preamps, right? Much like a console. Your DAW of choice ships with at least one solid EQ and compressor, right? Much like a channel of a console. It seems obvious to me that if people for years made classic records with one type of preamp, and generally speaking one EQ and compressor, you and I can do the same thing.

Are there potential sonic benefits to matching preamps to microphones and using different EQs and compressors for color and tone? Absolutely. Is it critical to making a great sounding record? Hardly. Do yourself a favor the next time you start to believe the myths about your built in audio interface mic pres and the lies about stock plugins, tune out all the noise and adopt the mixing console mindset. Simplicity is king people.

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There's a bucket full of different processes to go through to achieve a well-polished mix, but the order in which you go through these processes often gets overlooked.

In this post, I'll explain how your order of operations can be one of the biggest improvements available to you and I'll share with you one of my favorite ways of tackling a mix.

Over the years, I've seen a long list of workflows people are using to streamline different areas of production, and most workflows are great at counteracting a specific set of problems while also strengthening some of the core values that make up a powerful audio engineer.

Exposing yourself to a wide array of different mindsets and methodologies will supply you with a toolbox full of techniques for you to pull from. On the list of workflows out there, one of my longtime favorites is the Back-to-Front mixing approach, which is still helping engineers of every skill-level to create better mixes.

Before we dive in, I'd like to give you the opportunity to understand how this works...

If you're just interested in the method, continue down to "TL;DR"

The very 1st sound that enters your project makes up 100% of your mix. Now, the 2nd sound you add into your mix should ideally be approached as if it were in a balancing scale relationship with the 1st sound.

Instinctively, we place the 2nd sound with utmost importance, emphasizing clarity, with the mindset that the 1st sound isn't moving, or is already placed. Despite how the balance comes out, we could say that we're putting the 2nd sound on top of the 1st.

It's because of this stacking mindset that the majority of mixing engineers will unintentionally bury the first sounds they try to tackle in a mix, and emphasize the last sounds they touch. If an audio engineer is mixing without any order, jumping from sound to sound, this usually leads to re-leveling a mix, trying to bring sounds back into clarity, over, and over again.

A mixing engineer will typically have the necessary tools of the trade to help an artist achieve characteristics. Ultimately, though, an artist should not fully rely on the engineer to check all of these boxes; they should make the proper production decisions in advance.

TIP: If you have a kick track laid down already, start turning it up so that the peak master level reads around -5dB on the digital scale of your DAW. The whole mix will never turn the master meter red when your starting point is kick peaking at around -5dB FS.

Mixing engineers are often asked by producers whether they should leave the effects on when submitting their tracks. This is directly related to the question of whether you should use effects during production.

Learn a proven step-by-step mixing process that's helped thousands of musicians and engineers like yourself make amazing mixes in their home studio, using only EQ, compression, reverb, delay, and saturation.

This audiobook collection will show you whether you want to build a studio, work in one, start a label, or just make better music. If you are a beginner, this audiobook will lead you in the right direction in the least amount of time. Or if you have some experience, you will definitely find new insights. Save yourself months of going through low quality YouTube tutorials, and get all the information you need in one place.

Would you have the patience and drive to change your mind state, music production techniques, and health habits to sustain this highly demanding way of life? This step-by-step guide to music composer lifestyle design teaches how J.T. went from a six-figure job in a Fortune 500 company to composing music full-time, almost doubling his revenues within the first two years; how to compose, sound, and live like the pros; how to monetize every second spent in front of your equipment, making sounds and songs; and more.

Music production can be an elusive art form for many, and the challenges that face someone who is new to this can easily create overwhelm and lead to complete paralysis. The goal of this book is to cover music production from many different angles in a way that will change your thinking on the subject and build your confidence.

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